Unlike the broader repertoire of fresh white Middle Eastern cheeses, shankleesh is mould-ripened and aged, which gives it a very distinctive and pungent flavour. Essentially, it’s labneh taken to the extreme by further drying, salting and adding a bacterial culture. After washing, the cheese is mixed with and then rolled in spices such as za’atar, aniseed, sumac, Aleppo pepper and very hot chilli flakes. The texture and flavour both develop with age: it becomes crumblier and dryer – some shankleesh are so pungent they can knock your socks off!
Shankleesh doesn’t look like much, it’s true – more like a grubby and misshapen baseball than anything you’d want to eat. But, rather like blue cheese, it’s a taste that, once acquired, is hard to shake off. This is our homage to shankleesh and, although it’s made by blending, rather than ageing, which gives it a creamier texture, we reckon it is surprisingly true to the spirit of the original. Shankleesh is usually eaten as a salad, but we eat it as we would any sharp blue cheese: with warm crusty bread or on toast, sprinkled onto soups or into salads, or even mashed with hard-boiled eggs or whipped up with mashed potatoes.